‘4 STARS: Joyous, thrilling, informative and accessible’ EMPIRE
‘4 STARS: some of the world’s best musicians giving flawless renditions of Haydn’s works’ LONDON WEST END EXTRA
‘4 STARS: Quietly inspiring’ THE TIMES
‘4 STARS: Following his excellent films on Mozart and Beethoven, the British documentarist Phil Grabsky completes an admirable trilogy with this riveting study of Haydn’. THE OBSERVER
‘4 STARS: bracing, refreshing; simply very good indeed’ THE GUARDIAN
‘4 STARS: the film rescues Haydn from any neglect he may previously have suffered’ THE SUNDAY TIMES

About Serpico (1973)

Adapted by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler from Peter Maas's book, Sidney Lumet's drama portrays the real-life struggle of an honest New York City cop against a corrupt system. Neophyte officer Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) is determined not to let his job get in the way of his individuality. Despite his colleagues' leery reactions, he keeps one foot firmly planted in the counterculture, sporting a beard and love beads and living in bohemian Greenwich Village, while he performs his police duties with dispatch. Serpico's peers genuinely ostracize him, however, when he refuses to take bribes like everybody else. Appalled by the extent of police corruption, Serpico goes to his superiors, but when he discovers that they have ignored his charges, he takes the potentially fatal step of breaking the blue wall of silence and going public with his exposé. Serpico's revelations trigger an independent investigation by the Knapp Commission, but they also make him a marked man, permanently changing his life. Shot on location with a gritty emphasis on documentary-style realism, Serpico presents a city in decay both literally and morally, as everybody is in on the take, and the cops and criminals are almost interchangeable. Released in late 1973, after months of revelations of Presidential malfeasance in the breaking Watergate scandal, Serpico's true story of bureaucratic depravity touched a cultural nerve, and the film became a hit with both critics and audiences, particularly for Pacino's complex performance as the honest, long-haired whistleblower. One year after his star-making triumph in The Godfather, Pacino was nominated for an Oscar again, and lost again; Lumet and Pacino would reunite two years later for another true New York story, Dog Day Afternoon.

About A Tribute to Dino De Laurentiis

Hollywood icon and international legend Dino De Laurentiis was one of the most prolific and respected producers in film history when he passed away in 2010 at the age of 91. From his early neorealist masterpieces, Bitter Rice and Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria and La Strada, for which he received an Academy Award, to big-budget spectaculars like Barbarella, King Kong, Dune and Conan the Barbarian, to his recent reinvention of the Hannibal Lecter franchise, De Laurentiis’s career spanned 73 years in the film industry. With the support and guidance of the De Laurentiis family, the School of Cinematic Arts will pay homage to the exceptional variety and longevity that marked his career with screenings of his films and a panel discussion featuring his friends, family and colleagues.

Check-In & Reservations

This screening is free of charge and open to the public. Please bring a valid USC ID or print out of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your e-mail account upon successfully making an RSVP through this website. Doors will open at 2:50 P.M.

All SCA screenings are OVERBOOKED to ensure seating capacity in the theater, therefore seating is not guaranteed based on RSVPs. The RSVP list will be checked in on a first-come, first-served basis until the theater is full. Once the theater has reached capacity, we will no longer be able to admit guests, regardless of RSVP status.

Parking

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is located at 900 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes may be purchased for $8.00 at USC Entrance Gate #5, located at the intersection of W. Jefferson Blvd. & McClintock Avenue. We recommend parking in outdoor Lot M or V, or Parking Structure D, at the far end of 34th Street. Please note that Parking Structure D cannot accommodate tall vehicles such as SUVs. Metered street parking is also available along Jefferson Blvd.

Expect Traffic Delays

Due to the filming of the Kids Choice Awards on Saturday March 31, expect traffic delays on Jefferson Blvd., Figueroa St., and Flower St. between Exposition Blvd. and Jefferson Blvd. on Friday, March 30 - Sunday, April 1st. Please allow extra time to get to screenings.

Important Closures: ALL northbound lanes of Figueroa St. from Exposition Blvd. to Jefferson Blvd. will be closed for the weekend. ALL eastbound lanes of Jefferson Blvd. from Figueroa St. to Flower St. will be closed Saturday and Sunday.

About Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative

Visions and Voices is a university-wide arts and humanities initiative that is unparalleled in higher education. The initiative was established by USC President C. L. Max Nikias during his tenure as provost in order to fulfill the goals set forth in USC's strategic plan, to communicate USC's core values to students, and to affirm the human spirit. Emphasizing the university's commitment to interdisciplinary approaches, the initiative features a spectacular array of events conceived and organized by faculty and schools throughout the university. The series includes theatrical productions, music and dance performances, conferences, lectures, film screenings and many other special events both on and off campus. Each program invites students to dialogue and interact with artists, writers, professors and special guests. These interactions provide a dynamic experience of the arts and humanities and encourage active exploration of USC's core values, including freedom of inquiry and expression, team spirit, appreciation of diversity, commitment to serving one's community, entrepreneurial spirit, informed risk-taking, ethical conduct and the search for truth.